Desmodus draculae

Taxonomy

Assessment Information

Geographic Range

Population

Habitat and Ecology

Threats

Conservation Actions

Taxonomy [top]

Kingdom	Phylum	Class	Order	Family
ANIMALIA	CHORDATA	MAMMALIA	CHIROPTERA	PHYLLOSTOMIDAE

Scientific Name:

Desmodus draculae

Species Authority:

Morgan, Linares & Ray, 1988

Common Name/s:

English

–

Giant Vampire Bat

Taxonomic Notes:

This species is extinct and known only from fossil evidence.

Assessment Information [top]

Red List Category & Criteria:	Extinct ver 3.1
Year Assessed:	2008
Assessor/s	Turvey, S.
Evaluator/s:	Medellín, R. (Chiroptera Red List Authority) & Schipper, J. (Global Mammal Assessment Team)
Justification: Known only from fossil and sub-fossil material at various sites in Central and South America. As some of the material was not fossilised, it is suggested that this species persisted into modern times, hence it is included on the IUCN Red List as an Extinct species, although the date and reason for its extinction are unknown.

Geographic Range [top]

Range Description:	The bones of this species were discovered in a cave in northern Venezuela (Monagas) in 1988 and more recently in southeastern Brazil (Trajan and de Vivo 1991). Remains have been reported from other countries in the region, so it seems to have had a wider distribution than initially thought. The other countries are not recorded in the list below, but may include the Guinas, Colombia and Ecuador. The remains were not mineralized and found in association with living species, thus the extinction is presumed to be recent.
Countries:	Regionally extinct: Brazil; Venezuela

Range Description:

The bones of this species were discovered in a cave in northern Venezuela (Monagas) in 1988 and more recently in southeastern Brazil (Trajan and de Vivo 1991). Remains have been reported from other countries in the region, so it seems to have had a wider distribution than initially thought. The other countries are not recorded in the list below, but may include the Guinas, Colombia and Ecuador. The remains were not mineralized and found in association with living species, thus the extinction is presumed to be recent.

Countries:

Regionally extinct:

Brazil; Venezuela

Population [top]

Population:	Not known.

Population:

Not known.

Habitat and Ecology [top]

Habitat and Ecology:	Presumed to be similar to other members of the genus.
Systems:	Terrestrial

Threats [top]

Major Threat(s):	The reasons for the extinction are not known.

Major Threat(s):

The reasons for the extinction are not known.

Conservation Actions [top]

Conservation Actions:	No actions required.

Conservation Actions:

No actions required.

Citation:	Turvey, S. 2008. Desmodus draculae. In: IUCN 2009. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2009.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 21 November 2009.
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